A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t5.21

v2.c19.s6.t5.21

The Dhāraṇīs ¹ or “ Protective Spells ” ² constitute a large and important part of Mahāyānist literature. The need for incantations, benedictions, and magic spells, which was supplied in the very earliest times by the Vedic mantras, especially those of the Atharvaveda,³ played far too great a part in the mind of the Indian people, for Buddhism to have been able to dispense with them. We have already seen how the Buddhists of Ceylon used some of their most beautiful Suttas as Parittās or Pirits.¹ In a similar manner the Mahāyāna Buddhists in India also transformed some of the Sūtras themselves into magic formulas. In addition to these, there were also endless invocations to the divine beings of Buddhist and Hindu origin, so numerous in the Mahāyāna, and—last, but not least—the mysterious words and syllables already so popular in the sacrificial mysticism of the Yajurveda.² The protective and salutary magical power of a Dhāraṇī is primarily due to its containing some piece of wisdom *in nuce*, and not to any occult mystical significance of the words and syllables, though it is true that the Dhāraṇīs do also include “magic words” (mantrapadāni) of this kind.